


Darcy Lewis' Adventures in Professional Relationships

by devilishyaya



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awkward!Darcy being awkward, BDSM, Dominatrix, F/M, Femdom, Living in NY, Science Bros, Tony Being Tony, squeeing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-24 09:52:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 17,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/938547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilishyaya/pseuds/devilishyaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy Lewis worked her ass off to get where she is now.<br/>She had had no help from SHIELD. Contact with Jane had broken off.<br/>But now she was a successfull New York business woman about to meet her past again and having to explain her job to her old friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story seems to flow out of me right now after at least three years of writer's block. Let's see how this goes.
> 
> I'll add more characters and tags as they get important for the story. There will probably be a Darcy-centric pairing as the story gets further along but I'm not a 100% sure if it's going to be a twosome or a threesome but I will update the tags as soon as possible.

In her - for East Village fairly big - apartment there was a whole wall in her bedroom dedicated to photos. And not the framed wall collages that would be more age- and job-appropriate for Darcy but polaroids and shaky party photos, photos of strangers in Central Park and street artists. Photos of people she met while she was still in College, the photo of Thor, newspaper clippings regarding the Avengers and of course, photos of her ‘colleagues’ in their street clothes. That was why this door was always locked when she had someone over.

*******************************************

Darcy had always behaved slightly off for her age. She couldn’t decide on a major in college, changed majors four times and as such amassed a huge amount of debt in college fees for six years of studying. Her last internship with an astrophysicist was more of a spur of the moment thing because she still hadn’t finished her hard science credits.

And that internship was the thing that changed her life forever.

Oh, she didn’t land a job with SHIELD like she had hoped after meeting them and Thor. Sure, she hated Agent iPod-Stealer but she was a realist. She knew getting a job with a big international organization like SHIELD could have been her ticket to changing the world.

She couldn’t even stay with Jane after her internship, because SHIELD snapped her up and set her up in a lab with all the qualified assistants she could ever wish for and shiny machines that weren’t held together with duct tape and prayers.

So she went back to Culver, finished her degree in poli-sci and landed a waitressing job at a local strip club. The pay wasn’t something she could really live on but it was better than flipping burgers or waitressing at a diner. And she really couldn’t even contemplate how she was supposed to pay her debts back. She really wasn’t interested in dancing on stage, because she didn’t feel like she was coordinated enough to dance like that on at least six inch heels. Walking in them was hard enough.

The tips had been usually pretty good which she could largely attribute to her great rack. The only downside was that as a waitress she was a lot closer to the customers and a quick ass grab from them usually had to be endured because most of them tipped better after they copped a feel. Also, the bouncers were kind of lax about protecting the girls from grabbing since the owner got a percentage of all their tips.

This job definitely wasn’t something she wanted to stay at but at the same time it was okay enough till she could figure out what she wanted to do next. With a degree like hers there weren’t all that many jobs to be had and certainly not near Culver. She didn’t even really know why she wanted to stay here since all of her friends had already graduated and either moved back home or moved on to different cities to start their work lives and Eric was moved to New York by SHIELD.

It all changed again when one day, a few hours into her shift, a tall beautiful woman walked in. They didn’t get many female customers at all, because to her it seemed most lesbians weren’t exactly interested in seeing girls dancing at the pole. They got the occasional bridal party that thought it was daring to see what guys did on a bachelor parties, but they never tipped well and were giggling the whole time which was more than annoying to Darcy.

The woman sat at one of her tables, if you could call it that. Darcy often had to help out the other waitresses, if customers were holding them at their tables for more than a few moments. When she walked over, she mustered the new woman at the table. Knee-high leather boots that were polished to a shine and a trenchcoat even though it was always very warm at the club.

Due to the bad lightning everywhere apart from the stage, Darcy was only able to see that the woman’s hair was a dark red when she was nearly at the table. “Welcome to Shooters. Can I get you a drink?”

Usually, if it had been just a normal customer, Darcy would have come a lot closer and maybe bend a bit over to ensure a good tip but this woman looked a bit intimidating with the perfect hair and make-up and an aura of indifference about her. She looked like she would fit better in a french café than a third-class strip club.

“Just water, please. I’m waiting for somebody. Could you bring a second glass of water over when he arrives?”

Even though her tone was perfectly polite, her last sentence wasn’t a question at all and more of an order. 

“Sure thing. One water coming right up.”

As Darcy made her way over to the bar, in her head she was still back at the table. Practically nobody ever ordered water or met someone for a rendezvous/meeting/whatever here. And yes, she was probably more curious about the woman than she should be, but her shifts were practically always the same and this was something totally different.

When she was almost back at the table, she saw another man walking through the doors and looking around obviously searching for someone. Which also almost never happened, because most guys were either here solo or as part of a bachelor party (good tippers, but horrible ass- and other appendages - grabbers because they edged each other on and drank ridiculous amounts of alcohol).

When the man at the door saw the woman at Darcy’s table, he visibly took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and looked down at the floor while he walked over.

“Here is your water. I’ll bring the other glass over as soon as possible. Did you need anything else?”, Darcy asked.

The man was now standing directly next to the woman’s chair but said absolutely nothing, didn’t even acknowledge or pass a glance at Darcy, even though her outfit made her boobs look almost ridiculous good. He also seemed to wait for permission to sit down while the redhead seemed to be ignoring him.

“Oh, please, don’t inconvenience yourself because of him. He was late. He can wait for his water. But I would like a glass of your best champagne. He will give you his card, because he’s paying, isn’t he?”

Obviously relieved to be addressed at all, the man pulled out his wallet and handed Darcy a black AmEx which she took with almost a touch of reverence. This kind of credit card probably had never been inside ‘Shooters’ before and it had certainly never found its way in Darcy’s hands before.

As Darcy came back, she noticed that the man had been allowed to sit but he was perched at the edge of his seat, his wallet on the table in front of the woman, his hands on his lap and eyes still cast down while the woman talked at him. Yeah, that was the right way to describe it. They weren’t in a conversation because the only thing that the man was allowed to contribute to the conversation was his money and the occasional head-nod or -shake.

Darcy adapted to the mood at the table and served the woman first. After she put down the second glass of water, she was unsure who she should give back the credit card too. A demanding hand made her indecisiveness unnecessary. She handed the card back to the woman who put it in the wallet and pulled it closer to her.

The rest of her shift was spent occasionally serving the table with more champagne and water and trying to spy on the table without attracting attention to herself. Since the room was so dark she was pretty sure she got away with it.

The pair left at the end of her shift and she tried to get them out of her mind, at least until she got home. The area surrounding the club wasn’t the best but not the worst either. The only problem was that customers of the club tended to hang around the parking lot waiting till the dancers came out. Since she had caught an early shift she was finished before most of the dancers but nonetheless she gripped the taser in her coat pocket tight as she left through the backdoor.

Outside it was cool and she walked briskly to her junker of a car. She had her keys already in her hand when she heard a voice behind her.

“Excuse me. Could I have a moment of your time?”

Darcy gripped the taser in her pocket tighter as she turned around. The redheaded woman stood a few paces behind her under one of the street lamps lining the parking lot fence. The man kneeled a step and a bit to the left behind her.

“Aehm, sure, but it’s a bit cold out here. Could we do this somewhere else? Preferably in public? With a few more people around and maybe coffee?”, Darcy asked. Best not to upset the crazy persons and get them all somewhere safer for her.

“There’s a 24-hour diner a couple blocks from here. I don’t know how many people there will be at this time but they should have coffee and we can discuss my proposition for you”, the woman told her. “My name is Jasmine, by the way.”

“Darcy. I’ll meet you there in ten minutes. Just have to make a call. … And what’s with him?” Darcy pointed to the man still kneeling.

The woman had a small smile on her face. “You’ll find out…”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter that only has Darcy in it.
> 
> Next chapter, Darcy meets an old friend.

Now, three years later, she lived in a beautiful apartment in New York and all because of that one night and her job at a third-class strip club. Jasmine had helped her a lot. Jasmine’s first offer had only extended to the rest of the night they met. She hadn’t offered because she thought Darcy would be particularly suited to the profession or anything. She only offered because her client had reacted to Darcy’s looks even though Darcy herself never even noticed it.

That first night, she went with them and thought it only meant she would earn an easy 400 bucks. Nothing more. And yet, she found herself fascinated by the way Jasmine handled herself and her client the whole night. Sure, apparently working like Jasmine did meant a lot of money but that wasn’t the draw for Darcy. It meant being in control of herself and the situation the whole time.

Her life had been out of control, especially after she met Thor and she realized that there were bigger things in life than getting her degree and finding a good paying job as fast as possible to sustain her expensive comic- and iTunes-addiction. She only worked to get barely by, not even able to pay back all that much of her debts and waiting any moment for the debt collectors to knock on the door of her shitty apartment that she had to share with a guy who worked as a bouncer/drag queen. Not that Carlp wasn’t nice but sometimes he was a bigger bitch than all of her dorm roommates put together.

Jasmine showed her that to dominate a man, you first had to be able to control yourself and be able to read his every reaction. That’s where the three semesters as a psychology major had come in handy. Jasmine showed her what she had to look for and let her shadow her sessions with as many different clients as possible to prepare. Darcy was like an apprentice to her, something she never thought possible.

Her experience with sex before working at the club and later meeting Jasmine hadn’t been entirely vanilla but nothing had prepared her for all the different kinks that Jasmine provided for in her work. Jasmine was only slightly older than Darcy but had learned all the things she showed to Darcy by trial and error. Something that had cost her a lot of customers in the beginning because as she told Darcy, she had been too stupid and arrogant to realize that being a professional Dominatrix meant more than to hit people, take their money and kick them out as soon as possible. Also, that you couldn’t just do things to people without proper research first.

Darcy had had a lot of homework. Lots of books about the psychological effects of BDSM (such as they were), different books about kinks, medical books geared towards the effect of blunt force on the body, heaps of websites from other Professionals and about just about any kink found under the sun together with the advice to find out what kinks Darcy liked best and what she found still possible to do even though it didn’t interest her quite as much.

At first, she still had to work at the club to support herself even though she now had a little extra cash to not only put away a monthly sum towards her college debt but to also start buying a few clothes that were better geared to her new profession. Over all she felt good. She was able to put the fears about her future aside more easily because she didn’t have to worry about money all the time. And from time to time she could squirrel away a bit of money to treat herself to something indulgent like going out for a mani/pedi instead of having to do everything by herself.

Her training was a lot of hard work pressed in just a few short months. After half a year, Jasmine felt that she was ready to take on her first client for a solo session. Not that Darcy felt all that ready to do this without supervision but she trusted the judgement of her teacher.

While it hadn’t been the best session ever, she felt for a first time alone it wasn’t all that bad and she searched for more.

For a while Darcy and Jasmine worked well together in the area. Both specialized in different fetishes so they generally didn’t take each other customers away, they just shared. After a few months however another dominatrix moved to the area and wasn’t all that fussy about how she got a regular customer base together.

For Darcy this meant she had to make a decision. She didn’t want to take the customers away from Jasmine but even though they specialized in different ways, their style was pretty similar since Darcy learned from Jasmine. So she thought hard. Should she stay in Willowdale which wasn’t all that big to begin with or should she move somewhere else and start over.

She was only sure about one thing: she wanted to stay a professional dominatrix. The job was fun for her. She made enough money to live and while the work could be very demanding both psychologically and physiologically, she loved being her own boss.

Finally she came to a decision when she had to go back to doing more shifts at the club because she hadn’t had enough customers and was barely making enough to live. So she started to research where she should move to next. New York had always fascinated her and she thought if she was closer to NY maybe she could meet up with Erik again.

Since she couldn't really afford to rent anything directly in NYC, she moved to an apartment complex in Newark where she could even afford to live without a roommate which made her glad. The only downside was that she still couldn’t work from home which meant she either had to rent a space in the city (she couldn’t afford that), rent hotel rooms (also pretty pricey since she usually attracted a higher-class clientele and she wasn’t sure if she could charge them for the room too) or she could go back to making house-calls. Which could be anywhere the customer wanted but since she was new to the city she didn’t have the support network she had had back in Virginia.

She talked a lot about the move with Jasmine and informed her roommate Carlo of the move, too. As a next step she updated her homepage and several of her social media accounts to include the information about her move and she was once again glad that she was able to work on her homepage on her own. If she had to pay someone to maintain her site, she would have had to pay a lot more than the cost for just hosting her homepage.

The next few weeks were very hectic for her. She had to make a trip to Newark to finalize all the paperwork for her new apartment, paid her rent for a few months in advance since the paystubs for the club back home meant nothing to the new landlord and took as many shifts at the club and meetings with customers as possible to establish a little reserve if the first weeks were not going as well as she hoped.

She was ready to start her new life when all was said and done.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay.
> 
> If I try to be realistic there will be about one chapter per week because real life just gets in the way of writing. Please be patient with me. :)

And here she was now, three years later. Her business took off. Something she had never dreamed off because NY was full of dommes, professional and otherwise. She had just been a newcomer and she hadn’t taken the city by storm. No, she had worked hard for what she had now. 

She still was friends with Jasmine and they visited each other when they had the time. Since Darcy started out, she had been able to move into a 2 bedroom-apartment in East Village that made it possible for her to work out of her second bedroom and be closer and therefore easier to get to for her customers which in turn prompted more customers to become regulars.

She had made a few new friends in the Big Apple, too. Mostly pro- and lifestyle-dommes and their partners because it was just easier to explain. Some pro-dommes she was friends with were working in certain niches of the business like Jenna who was a mommy to a lot of ‘naughty little boys’. Not something Darcy usually did, so they didn’t poach each other's clients or anything which was the most important thing in Darcy’s opinion to be able to have a friendship with a ‘competitor’.

She still hadn’t been able to locate Erik even though everybody knew now where SHIELD headquarters were located. Apparently tasering Thor wasn’t enough to get a good enough clearence level to be able to talk to either Erik or Jane. Not to mention that she hadn’t seen Thor apart from his tv appearances. She didn’t think much further than meeting any of them. No thought wasted on what she would tell them that she did to earn her an apartment in Manhattan. Last they had seen each other she was a broke poli-sci student.

So it took her by complete surprise when she walked in her favorite bodega near Stark Tower and as she turned after paying for the very expensive tea one of her clients liked and that apparently was only sold in this one bodega in all of New York, she found herself face to chest with Thor who was carrying an armful of assorted pop-tarts.

He was unmistakable. Even though he was wearing normal street clothes, the long blonde hair and the way he still carried himself like the god he was, she knew there was no denying it. And she was happy to see him, hoping he would recognise her even though she looked a lot different than before than he did.

The four years since she had seen him, had made her more mature. Together with the business outfit she was still wearing since she just came back from an appointment in this part of town, with new glasses and more makeup than she ever wore back in New Mexico (not that that was saying much, in New Mexico wearing mascara was sometimes too much), she supposed she looked a lot different to what he should remember of her.

“Darcy? Is that you?” Thor’s voice seemed to be booming throughout the whole shop.

“Hey Thor, long time no see. Thanks for saving the world a couple times!”, she said smiling.

“You are very welcome, little lightning sister. We haven’t seen each other since the Destroyer came to Earth. How have you fared?”

“I’m good, Thor, very good. Just came around to get some of this very obscure tea for an acquaintance who is going to be in town soon. How are you and Jane and Erik? I assume SHIELD hasn’t been giving you any of my messages since none of you called back.” Darcy tried to sound understanding, but she was still a bit miffed that SHIELD thought so little of her. Hadn’t she kept theirs and every other secret that she knew of through her clients and otherwise?

“We thought you had forgotten us. You say, you contacted SHIELD? They should have told us about us! I will have to talk to them about their continuing interference!”

“Thor, if you’re free why don’t we go drink a coffee somewhere where we don’t hold up the whole shop? I just had my last appointment of the day and there should be at least four coffee shops on this block alone.”

“My friend, we can do better than that. Let me just pay for these pop-tarts for Jane and we will go back to my humble abode. Jane will love to see you again.”

Darcy wasn’t so sure if it wouldn’t be a bit overwhelming meeting Thor and Jane all in one day. Thor could be a bit too much on his own and she was becoming a bit worried how she was going to explain what she had done in the last few years and what she did in New York, not all that far from Avengers-… Stark-... whatever-Tower.

She watched him pay for his shopping and after he grabbed his bags, he held out his arm to her and they made their way up the street towards the tower. They attracted a lot of attention since Thor was unmistakable and also towering over everybody. Thankfully the walk was relatively short.

The downstairs lobby of the tower was big and dominated by a lot of granite and a huge reception area with at least five people sitting behind it, fielding calls and visitors while looking like immaculately dressed robots (which Darcy thought entirely possible given that Tony Stark was the owner of the building).

Thor walked her over to the reception area and somehow one of the drones was there in just the right moment to be able to help them even though there were a few visitors still waiting. Thor was obviously a priority to everybody here.

“Hello. My friend Darcy Lewis will need a visitor’s pass for the residential floors.”

Darcy couldn’t even react before a photo of her was snapped and it didn’t even take more than a couple moments till a blue visitor’s badge with a dreadful photo was pushed across the desk to her. Thor helped her to pin the badge to her suit and lead her around the reception towards a more or less hidden elevator.

The doors opened just as they arrived and Darcy started to be creeped out by the quiet professionalism that exuded everywhere around her. She had heard and read that Stark had equipped his tower with the newest inventions he could come up with but she had never seen it like this first hand. Sure, some of her clients used Stark products for security and of course Stark computers were everywhere. But this stuff was something that only the upper ten thousand could buy or wasn’t even released to the public.

In reality the elevator ride might only have lasted a couple of seconds but to Darcy it felt like forever. It felt strange that Thor was so quiet. There wasn’t even the typical terrible elevator music. The only sound was the rustling of their shopping bags. 

Darcy got more nervous the higher they went. Her hands were sweaty, something that usually only happened when she was meeting a new client she knew nothing about.

When the elevator stopped there was a quiet ‘ding’ and the doors opened.


	4. Chapter 4

When Thor requested her security pass be made out to allow her into the residential floor, Darcy wouldn’t have thought that the residential floors included lab space. In hindsight it should have been clear since the tower was not only owned but had been designed by Stark. The whole world knew that he liked to tinker around with things, so lab space on the floors he lived on shouldn’t have surprised her.

Voices could be heard out of one of the doors to a lab on the right side of the room. All lab spaces had a glass wall connecting it to the main hallway through which Darcy could see a lot of machinery which explained the humming sound that was kind of annoying to her. Certainly louder and more insistent than anything Jane had worked with while Darcy was her intern. Jane’s machines were not only held together by duct tape then but they also gave off irregular sounds, never quite a humming always more of a clicking sound Darcy wasn’t able to sleep to at first (not that she ever slept in the lab when she was supposed to work even though she had been to Puente Antiguo’s only bar the night before and had gotten stupidly drunk).

Thor turned towards the voices and held out his arm for her.

“I think, I know where Jane has spent her time while I was away. Come, I’ll introduce you to Stark and Banner, my comrades in arms.”

Darcy let herself be lead into the only lab that emitted human sounds. They had to walk around a lot of the machinery till they not only heard the voices but also saw the persons responsible. Around an enormous lab table all three scientists were arguing in science-babble-mode so Darcy only understood maybe one word out of three. They were so engrossed in their argument, they didn’t even notice when Thor and Darcy entered.

“Hi. Should we come back later or can you take a pause on this till I’ve given Jane a hug and a slap for not calling me back?”

“DARCY!!” Jane had a high-pitched squeal going for her and practically flung herself over the lab table to get to her friend faster.

Darcy met her halfway and they hugged and babbled, all pretense at being mature and professional gone. Thor looked at them with a smile on his face and let them be for the time being. Banner and Stark were apparently speechless, having never met Darcy and never having seen Jane behave in this way. 

It took a full five minutes till they had to stop for breath. Darcy and Jane hadn’t even understood half of what the other had been trying to tell them but that didn’t matter. They were still hugging when they turned to the others, Thor having walked around to the other side of the lab table and trying to decipher which area of the sky Jane was trying to study at the time and quietly talking to the two other men.

“Sooo, you all done squealing yet? Because any more of those high-pitched noises and I’m going to take Bruce and leave to do science elsewhere.”, Stark said.

“It’s just… we haven’t seen each other in so long. The last time it was in New Mexico and then, well …”, Jane trailed off and looked searchingly at Darcy.

“Yeah, I tried calling SHIELD a lot but they apparently didn’t relay any of my messages to you guys. You know, probably the same bullshit as always - no security clearance and stuff like that. But what do you expect from a secret organization that confiscates iPods. Seriously, they still haven’t given me my Precious back and there were some very important playlists on there. And thirty new songs that I had only had the chance to listen to once. Assholes.”

Jane had a long suffering expression on her face since it wasn’t the first time she had heard those arguments even though it had been years. Stark was already working his hacking magic to see what the SHIELD database had to say about the fact that Darcy Lewis seemed to have been trying to reach one of his favorite scientist-bros without their knowledge.

“Well, bombshell here has been calling a lot. Mostly while she was still living at Culver. And she started up again when she moved to Jersey but you stopped a year ago. SHIELD really doesn’t want you to contact them. At least that’s what Fury’s order says in the file. Why would it be of interest to Fury to keep an ex-intern away from a scientist and her former friends?”

The question seemed to occupy him and he wandered off to another lab table that held a monitor, not like any Darcy had seen outside of tv. Clear glass inlaid into the table which apparently housed a computer capable of using 3D-images which became clear as Tony started tapping the monitor and Darcy’s DMV picture hovered over the table.

“So, this is kind of creepy. Does he do this often?”, Darcy asked.

“Only when he doesn’t want to interact with us lowly humans anymore. I’m Bruce Banner by the way.” Bruce made his way around the table and shook Darcy’s hand.

“Darcy Lewis. I interned for Jane when she ran Thor over with our van. Twice.”

“You tasered him!” Jane looked annoyed all the while snuggling up to Thor.

“But I stopped after the one time. You had to do it twice.” It may not have been Darcy’s finest moment when she turned to the couple and stuck her tongue out at Jane. And of course that would be the moment a huge blonde hunk would walk into the lab and stop to look at her childish behaviour that stood so at odds with her business look.

“Hi Steve! Tony is busy hacking SHIELD at the moment but if you wait a few minutes, he should be finished by then. How about I introduce you to my friend Darcy in the meantime? Darcy, this is Steve Rogers. Steve, this is my friend and ex-intern Darcy.”

Steve seemed to be all gentleman and came closer to shake her hand as soon as Jane started the introduction. It still took her another moment to stop ogling him and hold out her hand to shake his hand. His ridiculous huge and warm hand. Which made her wonder if he was that huge and warm everywhere. His girlfriend could probably leave the heating off all winter long. But wouldn’t it be too warm in the summer?

When Steve cleared his throat and looked slightly uncomfortable, Darcy realized she was still holding his hand and had been looking absentmindedly at his pecs for quite a while. She tried very, very hard not to blush to no avail.

“Sorry, it’s been a long day. I’m not usually so socially awkward anymore.” Darcy looked away and when her phone started playing one of her favorite songs, signaling an incoming call. She pulled it out of her purse that had been lying totally forgotten next to a complicated looking machine. With a quick glance at the screen she turned towards the doors to the lab.

“I’ve got to take this. Very important customer. I’ll just be a moment.”

She practically ran from the room, partially because she still felt awkward because of her staring creepily at one of Jane’s friends and partially because it was one of her favorite customers calling her. Since she was still visible to her friends through the glass walls of the labs she took a deep breath before she took the call.


	5. Chapter 5

Darcy had tried to be as quiet as she reasonably could be while still not giving her client reason to worry. While walking back into the lab, she noticed that Tony Stark had apparently giving up on trying to research her and the three scientists were again standing around the lab table babbling fast about science, seemingly having forgotten about her. Seriously, she hadn’t been gone for more than a few minutes and they had forgotten all about the world outside of science.

Thor and Steve stood talking to the side. Their conversation seemed to be centered around battle strategies. Since Steve seemed to be working either for SHIELD or Stark Industries that wasn’t all that surprising. Stark had to get his strategies from somewhere and since he was rich as fuck, why not employ someone to do the hard work for him.

“Sooo…, I should probably go home before I make myself out to be an even bigger idiot. I’m just gonna leave my private number for Jane. … Thor, could you make sure she doesn’t lose it in all those piles of paper around here? Maybe we could go for coffee away from the lab so she stops thinking about all things science for a while.” Darcy started rummaging around her purse in search of pen and paper. There were papers on every horizontal area around her but she didn’t want to grab some important information and accidentally smear her number across it or something.

Jane, Bruce and Tony still hadn’t even looked up, but Thor as well as Steve were looking around for a piece of paper not containing any vital information or formulas. Since Darcy’s purse looked big enough to hold clothes for a week long vacation and she had to be careful not to pull out the smaller bag with sex toys from her earlier appointment stashed in there, Steve was the first that found something for her to write her cell number on.

“Aehm, here you go. I don’t think their last take out order is all that important for their research.” Steve smiled at her while he held out the scrap piece of paper and a sharpie for her.

Darcy smiled in thanks at Steve and after taking pen and paper from him, turned towards one of the machines next to her. Thankfully there was just enough smooth surface for her to put the paper on, so she could quickly scribble her name and number down. She walked over to Thor and handed him the piece of paper with a grave expression on her face.

“I will give you this piece of paper and you will keep it and put it in Jane’s phone so she can call me. Or get someone to put it in Jane’s phone for you. I don’t know how well you can handle modern technology yet but with Stark around you should be able to handle a cell, right?”

Thor nodded. “Indeed. Tony has showed me many things. I will put your number in her phone, so she can call you at a time when she isn’t so engrossed in her science. Next week, Stark is holding a feast here in the tower. I will speak to him, so you will be invited and we can see each other again then.”

“Yeah, big guy, I’m not so sure a big party is the best way to catch up. Pretty sure that it would be too loud there. Maybe some other time though.” Darcy tried to explain to Thor.

Steve interjected. “It’s not that big a party, really. Mostly the team and assorted friends and handlers. We try to do this once a month, but not everybody makes it to every party because of missions and such. There’s always a lot to eat, mostly take out because most of us can’t cook at all. And since Tony’s the host there’s enough to drink to kill an elephant.”

She laughed. “Ok, we’ll see if I’m ready to meet the Avengers then. You’re part of the team of one of those assorted friends and handlers?”

“You don’t recognize him? My friend Steven here is the glorious war hero Captain America.” 

Every other person in the room apart from Darcy became quiet at Thor’s bellow. Even the scientist three turned to look with varying degrees of horror at Thor. She got the feeling that this was really above her clearance level and that it had been a bad idea of Thor to out Captain America’s secret persona to her.

“Well, if she had any evil intentions, JARVIS would already have alerted me to that. And she kept Thor’s secret for a few years now. I think she can handle being told who Captain America is without blabbing it to the press or anything. I’ll probably hack into SHIELD later and give her a security clearance high enough to know who we are and remove the order to keep her away from Jane. Oh, and Brucey here becomes a giant green rage monster when angered. So just don’t talk to him about any and all tv shows and we’re peachy.”

Tony’s little speech seemed to relax everybody far enough that they could finally release the breath they had been holding.

Darcy once again stated her intention to leave for the day since she had had worked intensely over several hours each with two of her clients and she still had some work at home. Jane was aware enough this time that she came over to say goodbye to Darcy.

“I should get your number so I can call you and we can get some drinks or something.”

“Sweety, I already gave my number to Thor so he can put it in your phone. And I think he wants to invite me to some party next week, if Stark allows it. Just text me when you come up the next time from your science coma and we’ll make some time. It’s really good to see you guys again. And when we see each other next time you have to tell me what happened in your life since we last saw each other.”

Jane was deceptively small and frail looking but as she hugged Darcy goodbye she nearly cracked the younger woman’s ribs. Add to that that Thor almost dislocated her shoulder when he patted it and Darcy was counting herself lucky if she made it out of the tower without any serious injuries. Steve shook her hand and Bruce waved her goodbye.

Stark was concentrating on his tablet and only looked up as Darcy started to make her way to the door.

“Hold up, I’ll walk you down and get you a permanent access card to the residential floors. I do anything to keep my scientist friends happy. Whether they want the latest toys or friends to come over and play. I do it all. And please call me Tony, bombshell.” He tried putting his arm around her shoulder but she ducked out from under it expertly.

“How about you start calling me by my name and I don’t grab you by the balls till you bawl like a baby? You think that’s possible?”

Behind her she could hear - what sounded possibly like Steve- start to sputter before Thor seemed to try to calm him down.

Tony just laughed and motioned for her to go on. They walked in companionable silence over to the elevator doors which promptly opened for them. Tony seemed to wait till the elevator started going down before he talked again.

“Sooo, I had Jarvis looking into you while the others were talking. Quite an interesting job you have.”


	6. Chapter 6

Darcy looked at Tony with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, and it pays a lot of money, too. What do you want from me? You want to make me feel bad about myself? Not going to happen. I really like what I do and I’m good at it. Sure, it’s an unusual career path but not everyone can do what I do and not everyone wants to. I’m not ashamed about working in my job though I am always a bit worried that people are going to be narrow minded about it. I don’t think they have people like me in Asgard and Jane is so up in her science world that it’s hard to predict how they’re going to react.”

“All people think about, when they hear the word dominatrix, is a woman whipping a snivelling guy in front of her and her just counting big fat rolls of cash afterwards. Some even think that those women just do it to let out their rage at the injustice of a misogynistic world or because they were raped or molested as a child. Honestly? You couldn’t do this job successfully if any of that were true. You need to be very aware of your client’s needs and wishes and most importantly their limits. Most of your clients overestimate their limits in a bad way.”

“I’m not some power-hungry bitch just looking out for some easy money. If it were just that, I would need a very different job. This job is the most physically and emotionally demanding that I ever had. And I waitressed at a strip joint and at a renaissance fair before where wandering hands were encouraged as long as the owner got a cut off of my tips. Running around with heavy trays while holding still when another guy grabbed my ass? Not my idea of a perfect job.”

“Sure, I can’t say that I didn’t initially did it for the money. Even with tips I could barely make it work when I suddenly stumbled into the career. Not everybody can be a supergenius like you. But I’m very good at what I do. I did my research on everything that could be relevant to my job. I studied anatomy and trained with pillows and dummies how to hit, how hard I could hit with what implement. I worked my ass off to be as good as I am today at my job.”

Tony had tried to interrupt her several times but Darcy was still not finished. “My clients aren’t perverts like the media wants you to think. Most of them are very normal people with a good income that just want to let go a little. Some have very stressfull jobs and they just want to give up the decision-making for as long as the visit with me lasts. It’s unusual but it works for them. And shouldn’t we be downstairs or wherever you have to take me to get me an access card already?”

“Well, after this I’m not at all convinced that you are here to exploit your friendship with Foster and Thor. No idea how anyone could possible get that impression.” Tony looked at her searchingly for a reaction.

Darcy’s grip on her purse and shopping bag made her knuckles turn white from how hard it was. Sure, she had heard that Tony Stark was an ass, but this accusation was below her.

“Don’t you think that if I had wanted ‘to exploit my friendship’ with Jane and Thor or expose your asses, I would have done so already? I wouldn’t have counted on pure luck to meet Thor again. I would have hung out around the tower as much as possible and would have gotten myself invited to the parties you guys go to. And yes, I’ve got clients who could have easily gotten me on the guest lists but I didn’t want to meet them under those circumstances. I don’t want them to be exposed to the stigma of being friends with a dominatrix in the yellow press or worse in an article from Christine Everhart.”

Tony seemed to be impressed by her outburst. “Well, then, let’s go get your access pass.”

The elevator started it’s way down again and the silence between them returned. Tony was still tapping away at his tablet. He had looked like he could barely refrain himself from using it while she was ranting at him and now he held it up in front of her.

“Say cheese.”

Since she really wasn’t one for just smiling on command when strangers told her to, she just raised her brow and went for a cool look. Or at least she tried to.

“That works, too. The pass will be ready for you when you go to the receptionist desk in the lobby. I won’t be getting off with you since I have something to do in the basement level. I’ll trust you’ll be fine anyway.”

“Oh, you mean, you don’t think that I’ll be able to walk across the lobby, get a pass and then walk out? I’ll must look more ditzy than I thought I did.”

Tony just grinned and saluted her when she walked out of the elevator at ground level.

When she had gotten her access pass, she walked out of Stark Tower and nearly ran into two people entering.

The redheaded woman wore an enormous pair of sunglasses and her companion tried really hard to look cool in his leather jacket that seemed to be bursting at the arms. 

“Holy shit, you’re the Black Widow and Hawkeye!”

Darcy slapped both of her hands across her face, regardless of the fact that she nearly hit herself in the face with her shopping bag.

“And I think, I embarrassed myself now in front of all of the Avengers and I’ll just walk straight back home and don’t talk to anybody today again. This is so embarrassing! I thought I grew out of this shit a long time ago. I’m sorry, I’ll just go die quietly at home now. Bye!”

The whole exchange lasted maybe two minutes but the only response the two spies had for her where two raised eyebrows in her direction.

That actually made Darcy even more uncomfortable because surely those two could not only communicate with their facial expression but kill, too. She sidestepped them and hurried as fast as she could run/walk in her high heels without waiting around for another reaction from them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. My muse is a bitch at the moment.
> 
> At least Darcy got to meet all the Avengers now.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, that this chapter took so long and is so short but words are assholes at the moment and my FIL is in the hospital (though nothing serious anymore) which meant I had to drive my MIL around a lot.
> 
> I promise I'll be better and I've already got a couple hundred words on the next chapter written (thank god I remembered Write or Die which I used the last time I tried NaNoWriMo).

When Darcy came back home she went on complete autopilot. She put the toys that needed to be cleaned in the kitchen and the rest away in the cupboard. Her shoes had been left behind right at the door. She still needed to put them away. That was something she always hated about working at home. She had to put everything away immediately that wasn’t in her bedroom because it was the only room no client of hers was allowed in.

She went even so far as to mostly hide the bedroom door behind a large potted plant on a rolling board she put in front of the door whenever clients came over. That coupled with a curtain in a colour almost the same as the one on her walls nobody had noticed that she lived there and she intended to keep it that way.

After she cleaned and put the rest of the toys away, she made her way over to her bedroom. Inside it was messy with clean clothes, books and her unmade bed. To her right there was a small ensuite bathroom. It was one of the reasons she took this apartment. That and the fact that the walls were relatively thick, so nobody complained about the sounds coming out of her apartment.

She walked over to her hamper right next to the bathroom door and started taking off her clothes, putting them directly into the hamper. All she wanted now was a long hot bath and not to think about what happened today. Just go about her usual routine for a few hours. Maybe she would be feeling better by then.

Since the building her apartment was housed in, had been renovated fairly recently the water was already steaming seconds after she turned it on for her bath. The water started to foam when she put bath salts in it. She walked the two feet over to stand in front of the mirror and put her hair up in a bun and take her make up off.

When the water was finally ready, she submerged herself into the tub up to her chin and took a deep breath. She tried to let go of her thoughts but the moment she tried it, her thoughts began to race. How was she gonna explain her life to Jane, Thor and maybe Eric? If they really wanted her around after she explained herself, would anybody expose her (even accidentally)? Would she die of embarrassment if she ever had another meeting with Steve, better known as Captain Fucking America? Not to mention that she might get killed if she ever met the two spies again.

She tried to think about her work. Tomorrow she had an early appointment so she needed to go to bed pretty early and prepare herself as much as she could tonight. Shaving, using that expensive body butter that was one of her indulgences but it left her skin so smooth and seemed to invite people to touch her (which got them what they deserved for doing something so foolish).

In the afternoon she needed to pick up some new handmade equipment she had commissioned a few weeks ago and that was finally ready. The client she had it made for would be very happy at his next visit. After that was another meeting. Usually she only had one meeting per day but tomorrow would be the second day in a row with two clients. They always seemed to need to stock up before holidays or vacations spent with their families. Mostly she tried not to judge but at times like these it became obvious.

Even though she tried to go to her mental appointment book, her thoughts returned to her friends all the time. When her thoughts drifted off again, her mobile started to beep stating that she had received a message from an unknown number. She quickly dried her hands on the towel lying on the stool next to the tub and grabbed her phone she had put also on the stool.

It was apparently a message from Jane, asking her to go for a coffee in a small coffee shop near Stark Tower. Darcy only knew it because she had walked by it countless times when she went to get the tea for her client. She mentally went through her appointment book again and texted back an agreement and to do it two days from now around lunch time since that would get Jane out of the lab and possibly something to eat in her before she was lost to science again.

Jane hadn’t looked much thinner than the last time they had seen each other but Darcy still gave in to her need to mother Jane a bit. And taking a break in the middle of the day was definitely in order. Although now it was even more important to think about how she should tell her friend what she did for a living because it was almost impossible to tell Jane about the last few years without telling her about Darcy’s own job.

As there didn’t seem to be an immediate answer, Darcy took up her razor and started with shaving. The warm water made moving it around easy and the task was finished quickly. After quickly washing herself, she got out of the water and patted herself dry with the towel. Grabbing the body butter she started working it into the skin of her legs first when her mobile beeped again. She really had to remember to add Jane’s number to her contacts and giver her a personal ringtone. But not right now since she didn’t want to ruin her phone by drowning it accidentally in her body butter. She didn’t think the message would be all that time sensitive either since she had asked to meet Jane two days from now and they had just seen each other this afternoon.

When she was finished with massaging in the body butter, she quickly washed her hands and walked over to her bed from which she grabbed her sleeping clothes. After putting on her green polka-dot shorts and her old Culver shirt, she realized that she had forgotten her phone in the bathroom. As she walked back to her bed she read the message.

Only it wasn’t a message from Jane. It was from an unknown number and the only identifying marker was the signature ‘TS’. And since she only knew of one man who would have the gall to send her a message saying ‘I’ll be watching you’ it was clear that the message had been from Tony Stark. She wasn’t sure how he got her number but it was probably easy for him to get it even though it was unlisted.

Darcy would have to tell her friends some time but she wasn’t going to be pressured into it by Stark. He had the means necessary to expose her but she hoped for all of their sake’s that he didn’t. She tried to think of an answer that would convey that thought but all that came to her head would result in childish bickering with one of the most intelligent men in the country. She decided to delete the message and not to think about it again. 

She went to the kitchen to make herself something to eat. Since today had been exciting and a bit nerve-wrecking at the same time for her, she decided on comfort food for her dinner. She started pulling out a container of mac’n’cheese with bacon bits in them from the corner deli that always had the most delicious and fattening food. Just when she took a plate out of the cabinet and thought about what else she could eat, her doorbell rang.

She didn’t expect anyone and the night doorman usually didn’t let anyone up that wasn’t pre-approved with her. So it was either one of her neighbours (which was highly unlikely since she hadn’t even met one of them in the time she had lived here) or someone unpleasant. It wouldn’t be the first time some petty crook had tried to shake her down or make threats to get her working for them, only they hadn’t made it as far as her home yet. Up until now she had always been lucky and still had her taser in her handbag for just such an opportunity. She knew they were illegal to carry in NY but having the police deal with her for that was much preferable to what would happen if she didn’t have it.

When she reached the door, she kicked her forgotten heels to the side and looked through the peephole. On the other side of her door was the Black Widow patiently waiting and seeming to look right back through the peephole at Darcy.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay.

Darcy whirled around and pressed her back to the door. Somehow she didn't think that it would be a pleasant visit from the spy/assassin/whatever. Maybe the redhead had already talked to Stark and was trying to warn her off for keeping contact with Jane and Thor? It didn't sound likely that she would busy herself with something like that but you never knew.

Another knock sounded on the door and let it vibrate a bit behind her back. Since she couldn't let her visitor stay out in the hallway the whole night (not to mention that a spy could probably easily get into her door even without her invitation). Also, who knew if her neighbors were home and a confrontation in the doorway was certainly going to be catching attention.

She took a deep breath and turned around. After earlier spazzing at the Black Widow and Hawkeye, Darcy had thought the embarrassment for the day would be over but obviously not. Another deep breath and she opened the door, taking a step back at the same time. Natasha Romanov barely waited for Darcy to motion her inside before she walked past her.

When Darcy had closed the door and walked into the living room proper, the spy was carefully mustering her surroundings. Too late Darcy noticed that she had forgotten to pull the curtain back and put the potted plant back in front of her bedroom door. She didn't think that the other woman would just walk over and look into her bedroom without her permission but since the lights were still on, you could see a lot anyway. Messy bed, clothes strewn around. It made Darcy cringe a bit.

But since there was nothing she could do about it now, she thought it was time to start asking questions.

"So, hi there. Didn't think I would be getting any visitors this evening. Otherwise I would have dressed a bit better and maybe had some snacks on offer or something."

Natasha barely seemed to listen to her, intently looking at the locked door where Darcy had her "playroom/dungeon". The door was non-descript looking and nothing gave away what hid behind it, so Darcy wasn't sure why Natasha was looking at it like it was Pandora's box or something.

Darcy went to sit in her favorite armchair and motioned for Natasha to sit down across from her on the couch. She didn't think the redhead even saw it but she still sat down on the couch.

"What do you want from Jane, Thor and Selvig?"

"Wow, absolutely no beating around the bush here, is there? Did Stark put you up to this or did you get the idea yourself? What do you think I'm going to do? Whip Thor to death? Hide Jane in my non-existent basement? Try to kill Erik? I don't want anything from them, except for their friendship. We haven't talked in forever because SHIELD didn't want me to contact them. I didn't set out to meet Thor today. I just wanted my tea and to go home after an exhausting day, nothing more."

Natasha's scrutiny made her feel like an insect under a microscope. After a long moment the spy nodded and moved off the couch again.

"If you hurt them, you'll never be seen again."

She moved noiselessly to the door and was gone in an instant. Darcy went after her and closed the door

“That was such a cliché, wasn’t it?” 

Darcy whirled around.There really wasn't any way someone could have gotten in her apartment without her noticing. Or at least she thought so. The guy walking over to her fridge and grabbing her mac'n'cheese seemed to indicate otherwise.

"How did you get in here?" She noticed that the door to her playroom was open.

He came closer, all the while munching on her dinner. "You shouldn't have left your window open if you didn't want visitors."

"That window was only open a smidge and this is the fifth floor without a fire escape anywhere near there. Why the hell am I explaining myself to you? I should call the police!"

She started to walk over to her bedroom where she left her phone only to be halted because the stranger stepped in her way.

"I don't think so. Wouldn't do to have police sniffing around your home, maybe even going into your little playroom and then arrest you because your job is in a legal grey zone and the police don't like that. So how about we sit down and talk about why I'm here."

"How about you first tell me your name and why you're here, annoying me?"

The intruder walked over to her couch and made himself comfortable, putting his feet up on her coffee table.

“You met all of the others today, but you didn’t think to introduce yourself to me. That hurt. That hurt really bad, right in my feels.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “I didn’t set out to introduce myself to anybody today. Also, did you have the urban dictionary for breakfast or something? Learn to talk from the internet? Because I gotta tell you, nobody talks like that in real live. And you can buy me a new dinner since you’re happily munching mine away.”

The guy grinned at her with no hint at remorse. “But it’s tasty and would have gone off if you left it uneaten for much longer.” He put another huge bite in his mouth.

“Are you fucking serious? It wasn’t even ten minutes since the Black Widow interrupted my dinner. And now you’ll walk down the block and get me more mac’n’cheese, pronto.”

Darcy usually didn’t intimidate anybody but her customers and the occasional street thug trying to harass her. But if someone threatened her food, she could be crazy scary. In her line of work she had to watch her weight unfortunately, so treats like tonight, she allowed herself only once a week. And you better stepped aside if you came between her and one of her favorite foods.

“This is really good. Where is it from?”

“The deli on the corner. And it was my treat for the day since I had to meet Tony Stark and the Black Widow and lived to tell the tale. Now either go through that door and get me my dinner or go out that window ass first.”

But before she could do good on her threat, the Avengers-Alarm sounded outside. The whole city knew by now that you got off the streets and stayed in the safest part of your home if you heard these particular sirens ring. Just like a tornado warning.

The stranger put the food container rather abruptly on her coffee table and stood up. With a short ‘See ya’, he jogged to her door and was gone not a moment later.

After a short moment of shock, Darcy shook her head to clear it. This was all rather surreal.

She took the pitiful leftovers of her dinner and went to dispose of them in the kitchen. Then she began checking all of her windows, her door and her emergency bag in case her block needed to be evacuated again. Seriously, why did all the bad guys and aliens and shit decide that New York was the place any confrontation with the Avengers needed to happen?

She had just sat down in the armchair when her doorbell rang for the second time that evening. Groaning, she got up again. Even though she wanted to tear her door open and rip whoever was on the other side a new one, she took a deep breath and looked through her peephole first.

In front of her door where two guys in dark suits who wouldn’t have looked out of place on the set of a Men In Black movie. So probably SHIELD agents then. A SHIELD badge was held up to the peephole.

She opened her door resignedly. “You’ve come to retcon me? I didn’t invite anybody who visited me tonight and I met Thor totally accidentally and he was the one who invited me to Stark Tower. Totally not my fault!”

“Miss Lewis, I’m Agent Morris, this is Agent Hollsten. We would like you to come with us. There has been a threat issued regarding the Avengers and anyone that associates with them.”

“That’s just great. Since when does SHIELD allow me to ‘associate’ with any of the Avengers? I thought you guys wanted to keep me as far away from them as possible? Do I at least get time to change or do I have to follow you wherever in my pj’s?”

The agents did a kind of silent exchange that apparently consisted of facial muscle twitches and eyebrow raising. At the end of it, Agent Morris turned back to her and answered: “We need to be gone in less than five minutes from now. I suggest you change fast.”

Darcy rolled her eyes so hard, she felt they nearly got stuck in the back of her head and slammed the door shut in their faces.


	9. Chapter 9

They brought her back to Stark Tower on a convoluted route which was probably meant to keep them away from the battlefield and any attackers that had threatened the associates of the Avengers. The ride over in the clichéd dark SUV was made in total silence.

When they finally arrived in the parking garage of Stark Tower there were another pair of agents. The lock on the car door clicked which seemed to send a signal to one of the agents outside who opened the door for her. She grabbed her bag from the seat beside her and went to stand in between the two new goons. They escorted her to the elevator and then all three went even further down.

It took at least two minutes for the elevator doors to open again. Darcy didn’t feel like the whole time was spent going down. Rather it appeared that they went through several discrete security checks. When the doors finally did open, a small hallway was revealed with what looked like a door to a big vault. 

“You’re putting me into a vault? I’m not a painting or something!” She wanted to turn around immediately but it wasn’t possible since the agents at her side each took one of her arms.

“Ms Lewis, behind the vault door there’s the security rooms assigned to the associates of the Avengers and any member of the team not currently on a mission. It was designed by Mr Stark himself. The door is secured through password, voice-lock and a retinal-scanner. It would take an a-bomb to get through to the rooms uninvited. Ms Potts, Dr Banner and Dr Foster are already there.”

Darcy huffed and stopped struggling, letting herself be directed from the elevator. Agent Morris let her go and stepped forward to unlock the vault door. When it opened the world behind it was all plush and luxurious surfaces, certainly more the style of Pepper Potts than Tony Stark.

“Darcy? What are you doing here? Has something happened? We haven’t been told much about what’s going on right now!” Jane rushed over to her. Darcy didn’t even have time to look around before Jane hugged her tightly.

“They didn’t tell me all that much before they escorted me from home. Apparently there was a threat issued against the Avengers and associates? I don’t know since when I’m associated to the Avengers but they thought it was important that I stay here till everything’s over.”

The vault door closed behind them with the agents staying on the outside. Darcy looked over Jane’s shoulder to see Pepper Potts coming towards her with a tablet in her hand. Unlike Stark, Ms Potts seemed not all that approachable and especially not as asshol-ish as him.

“Jarvis has a video feed set up for us on the monitor over there. I’m sure the team can handle this. Why don’t we sit down and wait for news.”

Jane seemed reluctant but while Darcy was still nervous and a bit agitated, it had been a long day for her and sitting down on one of the plush couches in front of a big TV sounded heavenly. Realizing that Jane wouldn’t be so easily convinced, Darcy wrapped an arm around her shoulder and took her over to where Ms Potts had already sat down next to Dr Banner.

“I don’t know much more than you either, Jane. The agents who brought me here didn’t tell me anything apart from the fact that the Avengers and the people associate with them have received death threats or something.” Darcy shrugged and dragged Jane down with her on the couch not currently occupied by the CEO of Stark Industries and the Hulk. 

Darcy had to admit that being in the same room as Pepper Potts intimidated her something fierce. She wasn’t used to feeling like that anymore. She had had other CEO’s kneeling at her feet (sure, they mostly couldn’t be compared to Stark Industries in the slightest but still) and liking it. Now she felt like Jane’s intern again. No brain-to-mouth filter and a bit awkward and gawky. She vowed to only speak up again if asked a direct question or she had something intelligent to say. Well, she at least could make the resolution to do so. Her tired brain had been known to fail her.

You would think that it would also be very intimidating sitting in close proximity to a guy who grew to be into the Hulk but Bruce had a calm and deeply relaxed demeanor about him that relaxed Darcy too. And since Jane also didn’t seem to worry about him, Darcy rather concentrated on keeping Jane calm about the mission.

The video feed currently showed a part of the city with a lot of older buildings so it was probably not attacked when the Chitauri invaded NY. The Avengers were just arriving at the scene. Iron Man hovered near the rest of the team. Up until now you couldn’t see anyone attacking them, so they just stood at the ready. Jane relaxed a fraction since it didn’t look all that dangerous at the moment.

“The video feed is provided by a Stark Industries drone that Tony invented to give me a bit more piece of mind. And give SHIELD a bit more battle data. At the moment there are seven drones out there providing coverage. Jarvis filters these to give us the best possible coverage at all times. We should be pretty well informed in here.”

Darcy and Jane nodded both more or less meekly and started to snuggle a bit deeper into each other and the comfy couch. That changed instantly as something on the screen changed. The monitor was split in two halves. One side still showing the Avengers in their circular formation and the second half showing what appeared to be hovercrafts flying towards them. The hovercrafts could have almost looked inconspicuous if not for swords and machine guns attached to them. They reminded Darcy a bit of an old Doctor Who episode. Well, at least the ones with the swords did.

The Avengers didn’t seem to be aware of the threat yet. The crafts were only one block away from them, flying harmlessly through the air, when the team seemed to be getting their infos from SHIELD. The video drones only picked up that one swarm of hovercrafts so the Avengers formed a new battle stance.

The four of them all had their eyes glued to the monitor. Jane and Darcy were still cuddling while Pepper Potts seemed to be holding hands with Dr Banner. Suddenly alarms started blaring in their rooms and a warning message filled the screen.

“Ms Potts, someone is trying to hack into my mainframe. It seems the hover crafts were a diversion tactic. A distress call was sent to SHIELD as the attackers are trying to override my security codes pertaining to all doors on the premises. Sir was also routinely informed of this. I’ll try to upkeep you with any information.” 

Jarvis message wasn’t all that comforting after hearing the sirens. Darcy was unsure of what to do apart from keeping a hold of Jane since she seemed to be nearly vibrating off of her seat. She looked over to the other two people currently occupying the room and saw that Dr Banner was apparently doing breathing exercises. Not very reassuring. Ms Potts was still holding his hand though, so maybe it wasn’t so bad? Darcy wished desperately that somebody would take charge of the situation, but so far no one seemed to be forthcoming.

“Ok, let’s do this!” Jane had detached herself from Darcy and was walking over to Dr Banner, babbling sciency things all the way.

**************************************************

In the end, it not only took the Avengers and SHIELD but the Fantastic Four were also called in. Jane and Bruce (as he asked Darcy to call him somewhere around the time he worked frantically on a computer terminal while they heard banging and screeching noises from the vault door) had saved the day with their science skills while Stark hacked several secure databases to find the person responsible for all of this. Pepper had relayed everything Jane and Bruce did to Tony (and wasn’t it just impossible what her life had come to again when Jane was back in her life? Seriously, she was calling superheroes and super-CEOs by their first name!)

The Fantastic Four were only needed to keep the hover bots from spreading all over the city, thankfully. Even though Darcy had never met any of them personally, she disliked Reed Richards and Johnny Storm because of their need to be arrogant assholes in public most of the time. Why Susan Richards had married that guy was a mystery to Darcy since she seemed like a very nice lady. But that was neither here nor there since the debriefing for them would be held elsewhere. Apparently SHIELD didn’t trust them all that much.

It was in the early morning hours the debriefings were halted on account of the fact that no one around the large conference table could concentrate anymore. Darcy had thought that SHIELD would separate her from the others since she didn’t think she provided all that much to help fight the baddies. She just kept both scientist caffeinated and pointed out things happening on the battlefield if she thought the two were too deep in Science-Land to notice. Also, didn’t SHIELD want to keep her away from Jane at all costs?

The debriefing dissolved pretty slowly and groups began to build around the room. Darcy wasn’t really sure what to do next. Even if it wasn’t that far from Stark Tower to her apartment, she really didn’t relish the walk (it was a bit annoying that getting a cab after an attack was next to impossible, the subway was discontinued till the tunnels were checked) and she didn’t even knew if the streets on her way would be passable. She would have to ask Jane if she could bunk with her for a few hours till the cleaning crews had made some progress.

She walked over to Jane and Thor who were attached at the mouth. Next to them Bruce and Tony were involved in science speak dissolving the mechanics of the hover crafts and the stuff Bruce and Jane did to help the Avengers on the outside.

Darcy tried clearing her throat to get someones attention so she could finally get something to eat and a place to crash for a few hours. It was almost six a.m. and she still didn’t even had had dinner from the day before or the opportunity to get more than a few seconds of sleep. Steve came over and when he cleared his throat it seemed to get the others attention.

“I think Darcy here wanted to tell you something.”

Darcy smiled at him. “Thank you. Actually I wanted to ask Jane if she had somewhere to stay for me for a few hours? And maybe some poptarts or something? I hadn’t really had dinner before I was escorted here and after there wasn’t really time and now I’m starving something fierce.”

But before Jane could answer her, Stark was already talking to Jarvis. “Jarvis, buddy, get us some grub for the penthouse and make it enough so that we normal humans can get a bite in next to the super-powered people here. Since I see neither Romanov or Barton ask them too if they want to come or fuck their brains out first. But we’re not waiting for them again. If they want it warm, they save the fucking for after. Also see which guest quarters are ready to house Ms Lewis here. Nobody wants to be on the same floor as Thor and Jane after a battle.”

The last was said to them all while Jane blushed and Thor had an enormous grin on his face.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry not to have updated sooner but between work and my helping out at the animal shelter it's been a crazy couple of months. We got an abused dog and her puppies in and I've been spending most evenings and weekends over there to help out.
> 
> More frequent updates are hopefully in the making since the momma is going to be adopted tomorrow by my mother and there's only one of the puppies left.
> 
> Anyway, happy reading.

Darcy still couldn’t believe that she was sitting with the Avengers in Tony Stark’s penthouse eating everything that would be delivered to their door. Stark’s name and money was a big motivator for the local restaurants to deliver to his tower but apparently some of their favorites had been damaged in the fight. Still, there was an impressive amount of food on various surfaces around the room. It was also pretty quiet with everyone stuffing their faces but nobody up for much talking.

She got up and clambered over Barton’s legs (he had asked her to call him Clint but calling almost all of the Avengers by their first name was still creeping her out) to get another slice of heavenly pizza and some of the General Tso’s chicken to go on top. Next to where Clint was sprawled on the couch, Natasha was curled up with a plate, eating very proper with her chopsticks as if she had done it all her life. Next to all these almost perfect human beings Darcy felt like she blundered along. She hated them all a bit for that.

The only one looking relatively normal was Jane. Her head was lying on Thor’s shoulder and she seemed to be almost asleep and drooling by the looks of it. Thor was looking fondly at her every few seconds while having a conversation with Bruce and at the same time he was stuffing his face with a family sized portion of lasagne.

She walked over to the large table which had a large portion of the food set up buffet style. Steve was standing next to it, heaping his plate with food for what had to be at least the third time. He smiled at her when he noticed her next to him. After she had grabbed her second helping, she turned around and noticed that Barton had claimed her spot on the couch for his legs. 

“There’s still room on the couch I was sitting on since Bruce moved over to sit with Thor and Jane.”

Steve had also noticed that her former seat was taken. She nodded and they both moved over to the unoccupied couch. She stuffed her face with the pizza and watched Steve next to her. At least there wouldn’t be any uncomfortable silences if they both had their mouths full.

Only Barton seemed to notice them sitting a bit tense next to each other and he had nothing better to do than point it out to everyone else.

“So, Darcy, ever had a national icon being so uncomfortable next to you?”

“Usually only CEO’s worth millions when I give them my invoice.” Darcy smiled. She had bigger and badder guys try to make her uncomfortable and fail. Her being unable to fully relax on a couch with Steve had more to do with the fact that she wanted to touch his muscles and that was a dumb move since she had just met him. Also, if she didn’t know how Jane was going to react to her job, then how was a guy who was THE symbol of the american way react to it?

“What do you do for a living then, Darcy? If CEO’s don’t like getting your bill?” Typical, Tony Stark trying to rile her up. She had met him only yesterday and all he ever seemed to be doing was trying to get a rise out of somebody.

“I coach CEO’s, managers and other interested people in body language and interpersonal relationships.” It was her standard answer to the job question. She even had a whole fake company set up so she could really send invoices and had a secretarial service set up to manage most of her appointments while only certain customers had her phone number. Most of the time her answer held up really well under scrutiny so she wasn’t all that nervous until Pepper seemed to perk up.

“Maybe you could work with some of our scientists on their interpersonal communication skills. They can be a bit ‘awkward’ when they have to meet with outside council or research partners from other institutions. That could perhaps be beneficial to them.”

“Maybe. Scientist aren’t really my specialty anymore. Haven’t worked with anyone science-related since I left Jane.” Darcy’s smile was a bit strained. She really, really didn’t want her job to come out this way and had to control herself to not just claw Tony’s face like she wanted to. Steve put a hand on her arm, seemingly sensing her discomfort even though she tried her best to hide it.

“How about we don’t talk about anybody’s work for a while? I think we worked enough tonight.” Tony deflated a bit at Steve’s words and seemed ready to argue but Pepper held him back with a withering stare. Darcy tried to hold in her relieved breath but from Steve’s smirk she hadn’t been entirely successful.

“Shouldn’t you be nicer to me? I heard Captain America is bound by contract to be always nice, friendly and helpful to everyone.” Darcy poked him in his side. And made a face right after. Not only did she almost break her finger poking Steve since she had hit a rib which didn’t seem to bother him at all, but she just poked Captain freaking America. She almost waited for the moment when a swarm of SHIELD agents descended on the place to incarcerate her for her crimes against the American Way and all that’s good and right in this country.

“Mostly I’m Steve Rogers, ma’am. I’m just Captain America when I put on my uniform. Or have to get Tony to a meeting.” What was it about him that made her forget almost all of her careful training to become a better professional? She almost had stuck her tongue out at him after his cheeky reply combined with the smirk on his face that just wouldn’t quit.

“Will you two stop flirting already?” Of course it was Stark. Although when Darcy turned her head to look at him, it seemed Pepper had already cuffed him on the back of the head.

“Just because you weren’t the main attraction in this room for a moment, doesn’t mean that you have to insinuate that there is something going on between me and Rogers.”

“Or you could just call me Steve. Most people I know do that.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “You’re a riot, Rogers. … It’s just that in the last 24 hours I’ve had several unannounced visitors at my apartment, the most harmless where the SHIELD agents send to collect me, an alien attack and I’ve met Thor and Jane again. On top of that I met all of the Avengers and am supposed to be on a first name basis with some of the Avengers. I think that would be a bit much for almost everybody.”

“Unexpected visitors at your apartment? Something we should worry about?” Steve leaned closer to her with a concerned look on his face.

“Well, that one guy was a bit strange since he came through the one open window that doesn’t have the fire escape in front of it and the door to the room was locked. And there’s the fact that I live several stories up. But he didn’t actually do anything other than eating my dinner in front of me and being cryptic. I hardly think that’s all that illegal. … Well, apart from the breaking in part.”

Natasha looked at her bored. Darcy got the feeling she just got away without bodily harm since she hadn’t actually told anybody of the russian’s visit. Her head wanted her to be on alert but her body insisted that she needed some sleep before she could be terrified again.

“There were guest quarters mentioned earlier? I could really use some sleep right about now.”

Pepper smiled. “I think we all could use some sleep. Would it be okay for you, if Jarvis guides you to your quarters? I know it is an impolite thing to do but I also just want to fall into bed and sleep for as long as possible.”

“As long as there’s a bed on the end of that guidance, I’m in. I think, I could almost sleep next to Jane and Thor going at it, I’m that tired.” And she really should get to bed. It was like she couldn’t even control what she was saying anymore. 

Next to her, Steve chuckled. “Then you really should go to bed. Haven’t met a person yet who could sleep through that.”

Embarrassed, Darcy quickly made her goodbye’s and got into the elevator.

“Ms Lewis, there is a guest apartment ready for you. When the elevator stops, take the door to your right and make yourself at home.”

“Thank you, Jarvis.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrote this chapter in one evening, so maybe my writer's block is broken?

The next time she woke up, she looked around a little more carefully than when she went to bed. It was a very nice room with a big bed and an ensuite bathroom. The only thing she could remember from before she fell into bed, was stumbling over her emergency bag when she walked in. Honestly, she hadn’t even changed. She just lost her shoes on the way to the king sized bed and felt the cool hardwood floors under feet for a moment or two and then the blessedly comfortable bed and then nothing.

Now she stretched and lay there for another moment. This bed was decidedly too comfy for her to want to get up and face the day or more likely night since there was just low light coming from the windows hiding behind gauzy drapes. Since she couldn’t put off getting up forever, she ripped the warm blankets off of her body quickly and sat up. Her feet dangled off the edge of the bed an inch or so above a very soft looking sheepskin rug.

The light that had been very softly glowing since she woke seemed to be getting brighter gradually so her eyes had time to adjust. This was something she could get used to, so it was better getting up right this second before she begged Stark for an apartment here.

Walking over to her bag, she nearly killed herself stumbling over one of her shoes and cursed. The floor seemed to be heated, another luxury she didn’t have back home, so she decided to get everything over with quickly. When she had walked into the bathroom that was roughly the size of her bedroom, she looked into the mirror over the gargantous vanity and grimaced. She hadn’t taken her make up off before she went to sleep and it showed.

Rooting through her bag she found everything to get ready. While she was brushing her teeth she planned how she would spend the rest of her day. The mirror had a clock integrated in a corner and it was already 6 in the evening. First she should talk to Jane and Thor as privately as it was possible in this tower and come clean to them about her job. They would both have to decide if it was worth the risk to be seen with Darcy in public after that. And if they wanted to tell the rest of the Avengers which was ridiculous in itself since half of them apparently had a pretty good idea what it was that she did.

Since her secretarial service would have postponed any appointments she had today, she didn’t have to worry about any disgruntled customers. They had a standing order how to handle the day after an attack on New York. Usually it was hard to get anywhere on those days due to the fact that the attacks left the infrastructure pretty damaged. She tried to get back to work two days after the ending of an attack but it wasn’t always possible. She would have to check her phone and the news stations, maybe have a look around on her way back to her apartment and possibly postpone her appointments another day.

When she finished making a list in her head, prioritizing like mad and trying to think of anything else she could have forgotten, she had showered and was back in front of the mirror, putting her wet hair up in a bun. Next she tried to compose herself and put on a make up as flawless as possible with her limited emergency stuff. Half of the Avengers were like sharks sniffing out juicy secrets and any insecurities they could find and she tried to give them as little reason for attack as possible.

Having finished doing everything she could to make her look presentable, she packed everything up, slipping back in her shoes. She tried to make the bed but it would never look as pristine as when she fell into it earlier so she gave up and finally grabbed her bag and left the room. Just as soon as she closed the door she realized that she had no idea where to find anybody much less which floor was Jane’s.

“Miss Lewis, Thor and Ms Foster are currently on their own floor and expecting you. If you enter the elevator to your right, I will bring you right to them.”

Darcy started. She had all but forgotten about the AI. “Thank you, Jarvis.”

She apparently wasn’t very far from Jane’s floor since the elevator ride was barely long enough for her to take a steadying breath. When she stepped off the elevator car, she immediately entered a big living room with an integrated kitchen where Jane and Thor were serving up a big meal onto a bar-style table connected to an enormous kitchen island. Stark so hadn’t been kidding when he said that Thor and Jane had their own fucking floor in this monstrosity of a tower.

“Hey Darcy, hope Mexican is okay for you. I just couldn’t eat any more italian. Not the same as we had in New Mexico, but it’s okay. Come sit down with us.”

Putting her bag on the floor near the elevator in case she needed to make a quick exit if Jane or Thor asked her to leave after their talk, she went over to them and took the seat at the end of the table. Maybe it would be easier this way. She didn’t directly face them and didn’t have to see Jane’s disappointed face when she told them.

She waited till they all had their plates full and started eating before she spoke up.

“I’ve got to talk to you two and I’m not really sure where to start with all this.” Darcy laughed nervously and poked her fork through the food on her plate.

Thor and Jane stopped eating and looked at her but she just couldn’t lift her head to look at them while she told them.

“When SHIELD came and whisked you all away, I was determined to continue studying but even before I finished my degree I knew I didn’t want to get my masters in anything to do with poli-sci. I was all ready to get a call from SHIELD telling me they had to offer me a job just so I wouldn’t blather what I knew all over. But that call never came and I didn’t know where to go so I stayed in Culver. Only I needed a job. The only thing that made enough money (at least when you included the tips) was a waitressing job at a strip club.”

“Stark took me once to such a strip club. The maiden’s there were almost as limber as the warriors back home are.” Thor’s voice carried through the whole room and yeah, Darcy could see how that would be awkward pretty fast.

“Well, anyway, there was no way I would be able to pay back my student loans on that kind of money. And one night there was this woman, Jasmine, at the club. She offered me a whole lot of money for basically sitting around and having a good time. The first time went fairly good and so she called me from time to time. I was really popular with some of her customers and she finally asked me if I would be interested to do it full time. Never again having to hold still while some perv grabbed at me just so maybe my tips would be a bit higher. I never looked back.”

“Darcy, … you’re not going to tell us that you sell drugs or something, are you?” Jane seemed hesitant to even ask.

“No, I never did or sold drugs. Although I was asked fairly often while I was still working the strip joint. No, I am a dominatrix for high-class customers.”

There was a pointed silence. Clearly Jane’s thoughts were going a mile a minute, trying to process every implication this could have and thinking very hard over how she should react to the news. Thor looked confused. So clearly something like paying someone to dominate them was a foreign concept to him. Or maybe he just didn’t get the term she used.

After her quick look at her friends, or maybe now former friends, Darcy felt uncomfortable.

“I would understand if you two choose to not meet in public or halting this friendship right now. If this gets out there are probably severe implications for the Avengers and it’s totally understandable if I shouldn’t come around anymore.” Darcy halted. Jane still hadn’t said anything and the silence grated on Darcy’s nerves.

Clearly Thor was more comfortable to follow Jane’s lead and since Jane still hadn’t said anything a few moments later, the silence seemed to be overwhelming. Darcy pushed her bar stool back and was just in the process to try to get down from it without completely losing her dignity when Jane grabbed her arm and halted her.

“Stop! I’m just trying to think of a way we can keep this between us. I may be not the best at publicity and that but I’m pretty sure the Avengers have to be kept mostly kid-friendly and your job … is just not. We may have to tell some of the others, so they can help us keep this under wraps.”

Now Darcy was the one silent, thoughts racing each other. “Well, I’m pretty sure that Stark and Natasha know about it. Clint maybe, too. He shot me some pretty strange looks while we were all eating together.” 

“Stark can probably help us. I don’t want you to leave again. And yes, I know, technically I left but I thought it would be better for you to finish out your degree.” Jane went to hug her and they did so awkwardly both having to right themselves several times to not fall off their chairs.

Thor cleared his throat. “What is this profession named dominatrix? Is it something condemnable?”

“I dominate men sexually and get paid handsomely for it. That’s the gist of it. Although I should note that I never had sex with any of them. There are several lines I don’t cross with my customers and that’s one of them. Just to make that clear.”

“We should talk to Stark, then. He knows how to manipulate computers all over this world to help his cause. And I will make sure that he sees this as his cause.”


	12. Chapter 12

“What exactly do you want me to do here? Creating a false persona? That’s illegal.” Stark never looked up from where he was working with a screwdriver on a circuit board.

“I already have a false persona in place. But we’re not sure how well it is going to hold up under scrutiny. Usually it just needs to hold up in front of the customers and they don’t dig that deep normally. We’re more worried that the press will dig deeper when they see me with Jane and Thor in public.” Darcy crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked defiantly at Tony.

“Hmm, maybe they will think you three are a thing. That Thor’s too much of a man for just one human woman. That he’s just the filling in a hot lesbian sandwich. That…”

“Yeah, we got it, Tony. Nothing to be done for that. I’m currently unattached. Not many people can handle my job.” Darcy’s hard stare was aimed right at Stark, clearly saying without words that she didn’t think he could handle it.

Of course, that was when Thor piped up. “My fair lady Jane is all I want and need while we are in a relationship. Loyalty is something I value very highly.”

“How about a fake boyfriend to go with that whole fake persona? I’m sure we can rustle up someone. Wilson and Rhodey should be back soon from their mission. And if you can handle creepiness there’s still Cap’s old pal, the Winter Soldier. I would have said Roger’s himself but I’m fairly sure his 40’s ideology can’t handle most of the sex workers and porn out there nowadays.” Tony had started typing something in a tablet while still mostly ignoring them.

“How about ‘no’? I’m not cattle to be handed off to the next best guy just because I’m currently single and people could talk. People do little else. I only think this is necessary since I don’t want to damage their reputation.” Darcy was prepared to say more but before she could the doors to Tony’s lab opened again and admitted Captain Rogers himself.

“Oh, sorry, I don’t want to interrupt. Pepper said that Tony wanted to see me but maybe I should come back later?” He halted questioningly. Having stopped just inside the doors, he looked really uncomfortable although he tried to hide it admirably. He still didn’t seem to be all that comfortably in Tony’s presence, Darcy noted. Maybe some left over feelings of his friendship with Stark’s father? Before she could get deeper into that train of thought, she was snapped back into reality by Stark trying to out her.

“Just setting up a fake public persona for the lovely Ms Lewis here. I can do that in my sleep. We worked further on your uniform, so we need you to test it for fit and comfort in fight scenes. I’m sure Thor can train with you to test it out. I put it on that table over there. We can still go over the design and colour later.” Tony’s left hand pointed to somewhere behind his shoulder while he kept typing with his right.

You could basically see Steve wanting to ask questions and visibly holding himself back. He walked over to the table the billionaire had indicated and gathered up what had looked like a mix of black, stiff fabric and kevlar.

“Ok, just so we’re clear, Stark. I won’t let myself be blackmailed. Steve, after I finished College, I started a career as a sex worker and Stark over there is supposed to make my fake persona better so the press can’t bad-mouth Jane and Thor over it. But he’s being an ass ever since he found out.” While she was usually brave, Darcy only looked at Jane when she finished her speech. Tony looked amused but was for once quiet.

“He found out because you told him?” ,Steve asked quietly.

“Nope, he found out when I first visited Jane here. Had Jarvis check on me or something. I was slightly weirded out by that. I just hope he does it because he’s friends with Thor and not because it’s fun to him.” It still creeped Darcy out that Stark was so easily able to get through her carefully crafted security measures.

“Tony! Pepper and I talked to you about this. You can’t just do background checks on anyone who walks into the building. Regardless of what Happy says. A person has a right to privacy. After all you take some serious action to keep your private life private, don’t you?” Steve’s speech seemed pretty practiced, but with Tony Stark it probably was. Stark didn’t strike her as the type who played by the rules easily.

“So, you have no problem whatsoever with her being a prostitute? Consider me shocked!” Steve rolled his eyes at Tony’s exclamation.

“You do know that there were prostitutes where I lived, right? That I only lived a couple blocks from the gay hangouts and there were a lot of them where I lived, too? I never had a problem with that. We were all poor, nothing to be done for that.” Darcy felt a bit uncomfortable after Steve stopped speaking. Thinking about an American Icon living in such poor conditions made her feel sad. Though, she supposes, at the time he was still quite normal and so were the living conditions for the time.

The silence lasted several moments, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Of course, the billionaire was the first one to break it.

“You’ve got something to tell us, Cap?”

“Even if I had, I would never tell you, Stark. It’s not like you’ve got anything to compare it to. You’ve been rich all your life.” There was a certain disdain audible in Steve’s voice. They still don’t get along, Darcy thought.

Darcy decided to change the subject. “Well, are you going to help, Stark? Because if not, I’ll better get my bag and get home. I’ve got an appointment in less than 12 hours and I still have to make sure that my place and I are prepared to handle that.”

“Oh, you think you aren’t able to handle your client’s? Must be slipping, Lewis.” Tony was still working away at his tablet doing god knows what.

“Last time you guys flattened the city most of my windows burst in. It pays well to be prepared for such an eventuality so I have time to either give my client notice well in advance or to make arrangements to meet somewhere else. That’s common courtesy, not that you would know anything about that, Stark.”

“Oh, burn!”, Jane muttered while leaning against Thor.

‘“Foster, don’t forget that you still want access to all my toys for your work. You should be nicer to me!” Stark looked at Jane accusingly.

“Oh, please. If you lock me out of the lab again, Bruce will let me in. He likes me a lot better than you. I never poke him with those taser-sticks and I have never put motor oil in his coffee.”

“Bruce loves me!”

“Bruce loves Betty, still. You’re more of an annoying little brother to him. Or better yet, the annoying friend of his little brother.” Wisely Thor stayed out of the argument between Jane and Tony.

“So, will Jarvis let me stop at your place to get my bag before I go or do I need a key card or something?”

It looked like Jane’s and Tony’s argument was dissolving into bickering and Darcy wanted no part of that.

Steve who had been standing around waiting for Thor, gestured to her that she should come with him. Thor also seemed to think that his presence in Tony’s lab was no longer necessary since he brought up the rear while they walked to the elevator which doors opened conveniently for them.


End file.
